Janet was one of the 2018 winners for the annual Women’s Day Giveaway!
Janet was nominated by a previous winner of the Women’s Day Giveaway – Lena – who was one of her students. You can read her nomination of Janet at the end of this post. I was so moved by her nomination that I had to choose Janet for this experience. Janet is the type of person who has spent her life helping others, and I was so excited to give her the full portrait and makeover experience.
And now a bit about that experience in her own words:
“I work at the University of Wisconsin Madison and am happy to be back living in Wisconsin after 15 years living out of state. I celebrated my 50th birthday and with my husband our 28th anniversary this year. I spend my free time volunteering with Kiwanis serving as the Circle K district administrator for Wisconsin-Upper Michigan. I will be retiring at the end of March after serving in this position for ten years. It has been a blessing to to work with so many amazing college students and see them grow as caring adults who give back to their communities. I am looking forward to having more time to send with my family as my nieces and nephews are growing up fast. The photo shoot was a great way to do something for myself and celebrate all the milestones.The photo shoot was a terrific experience. It was so much fun having my hair and makeup done by Alison. She made sure that I was okay with all the choices she made with my makeup & hair and really talked to me about what I wanted. Jennifer was a huge help with editing down my wardrobe choices for the shoot and finding additional jewelry for me to choose from.To be honest, posing for photos can feel a bit awkward at first, but Jennifer was so good at explaining how to pose and why it would produce a good photo. Once I got use to being in front of the camera it was so much fun. It was was such a relaxed experience and there was much laughter.
And, it all paid off when I got to the reveal of my photos a week and a half later. The photos were simply beautiful and so many to choose from! It was hard to narrow it down from the 20 photos on the wall in front of me. Jennifer made sure I had time to just take all the photos in and was comfortable with the choices that I made. It was so much fun taking them home and sharing them with my husband.
From consultation to reveal this was an amazing experience and I can’t thank Jennifer enough. ~Janet”
And now, I’d like to share Lena’s nomination of this lovely woman:
“I’d like to nominate a phenomenal woman – Janet DeGroot.She is currently going into her 10th year as the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan Circle K District Administrator. In her role, she has changed hundreds of lives of servant-leaders. She helps guide college students who are interested in service by helping them recognize their leadership potential, giving them the tools and skills to be effective leaders of change. She is retiring after this year, which is a huge accomplishment for her as well as a loss for the district.Not only has she been extremely helpful to students, but she has been unmatched in her dedication to her position. When she was first appointed to the position, she didn’t even live in Wisconsin! Up until last year, she did most of her job from Iowa. That means she would commute for random weekend meetings, different club and district events, and yes, even for an hour coffee date to help a student in need!Personally, she was one of my biggest support systems when I was Circle K Governor and she deserves all the love and adoration back that she gives out to everyone else. She would never go and do a shoot on her own- there’s always too much to do, too many emails to answer, too much service to be completed.There’s a reason all Circle K members know her as “Momma J”, and I know she is extremely worthy of this amazing gift. ~Lena”
